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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Travelling

A lovely drive to the airport. The traffic was light, and the rain held off
mostly the whole way.

Checked in at the airport, ran into a friend returning from the North East,
and chatted with him for a while before clearing security and going to board
the plane.

The flight was wonderful, if a little cramped: read for a while, and
snoozed. We arrived half an hour early, so I was sure I'd make my shuttle
connection.

My bag was waiting for me as soon as I reached baggage claim, too --- so I
arrived at the sign saying "Passengers with ground transportation reservations".
And waited. And waited. I wondered how early they would be --- half an hour
was an uncomfortably long time to wait. After a few minutes I thought to
look around for an information desk --- or anyone to ask whether I was at
the right place. I followed signs to "Ground Transportation", only to find
nothing of use --- and nothing resembling ground transportation. And still no
information desks. And no free wifi either. Finally I discovered where I
was supposed to be: too late by five minutes. I tracked down a phone number
for the shuttle company and confirmed that I had, indeed, missed the bus.
And only have to wait 2+ hours for the next one.

There are no restaurants or bars at Detroit airport, unless you are through
security. There is a stand selling candy and snacks, and a coffee shop. That
appears to be it, unless after half an hour you realise that there are signs
pointing to a hotel. So, courtesy of the Westin, I'm sitting with a beer,
typing this into a file (the Westin's internet and my computer appear at the
moment to be incompatible). And I'm feeling much better than I was before
I had the inspiration to find the hotel and buy some (probably ridiculously
expensive) local beer.

Two hours later, I'm sitting on the bus, waiting for it to depart; it claims
to have free wifi, but at present I am not detecting it: and it's already five
minutes late --- if it had waited this long last time, I'd have caught it!
Patience is a virtue. I'm trying to be virtuous.

The promised wireless appears to be just that --- a promise, and a broken one
at that. There is no information on the bus about what the network would be
called, and of the thirty networks showing as live, almost all show up as
protected, and none resemble the names of the bus company.

Two hours later, we're pulling into my final destination, and my host, who I am
expecting to meet me at bus stop, texts to say he has a migraine --- I'm to get a cab
instead. No problem. There's one opposite the bus, I hail him, and he takes me to
the hotel. (He gets a call just as we're pulling up to the hotel --- he thought I was the
passenger who had reserved him, I hadn't realised that another passenger on the bus
had reserved him, or indeed that he was reserved at all. I feel bad for the other passenger!)

The sidewalk in front of the hotel is all torn up --- horrendous: as a pedestrian, I'm not
really supposed to leave the hotel --- I do so anyway, and make it back to my room with
an appropriate beverage (after the day I've had, it seemed necessary). Only to find that
the wireless, working on my ipad, won't work on my laptop. Grrrrrr.... Twenty minutes later,and finally, I can settle in.